Carter graduated from medical school in
June 1973 and completed a
straight internal medicine internship at Grady Memorial Hospital
in Atlanta, Georgia. In July 1974, he entered the U.S. Navy and
completed flight surgeon school in Pensacola, Florida. After
serving tours as a flight surgeon with the 1st and 3rd Marine
Air Wings, he returned to flight training in Beeville, Texas,
and was designated a Naval Aviator in April 1978. He was assigned
as the senior medical officer of USS Forrestal, and in March 1979
completed F-4 training at VMFAT101 Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma,
Arizona. He was subsequently reassigned as a fighter pilot to duty
flying F-4 phantoms with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 333 at MCAS
Beaufort, South Carolina. In 1981 he completed a nine-month
Mediterranean cruise aboard USS Forrestal with VMFA-115. In
September 1982, he attended U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School
(TOPGUN) and then served as 2nd Marine Air Wing standardization
officer and F-4 combat readiness evaluator at MCAS Cherry Point,
North Carolina. He then attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School,
graduating in June 1984.

He has logged 2,400 flying hours and 160 carrier landings.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in May 1984, Carter became an
astronaut in June 1985. He qualified for assignment as a mission
specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews. Carter was assigned
as Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Representative for the Mission
Development Branch of the Astronaut Office when selected to the
crew of STS-33. The STS-33 crew launched at night from Kennedy
Space Center, Florida, on November 22, 1989, aboard the Space
Shuttle Discovery. The mission carried Department of Defense
payloads and other secondary payloads. After 79 orbits of the earth, this
five-day mission concluded on November 27,1989 with a hard surface landing
on Runway 4 at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

With the completion of his first mission, Carter has logged 120 hours in space.

Captain Carter is assigned as a mission specialist on the crew of
STS-42, the first International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1).

Captain Carter died in a commercial airplane crash April 5, 1991. Senator
John Tower also died in the same crash.